Act I

There were many reasons for Jo Kim to consider a wall painting. It removed problems of objecthood, while upholding the idea of expression or action as relational to existence through the very removal of the painting itself. In a year-long installation, the work instead posed a question about the meaning of attitudes. Where the position of a show is typically fixed, this project would unfold in four acts, leaving Kim still questioning what drove it.

The text originates from a scene in Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (2024), at a moment when “sisterhood” held a cause stronger than its simple cue. Later that week, Kim was influenced by a film starring Isabelle Huppert, in which the repetition of language was asserted as a form of exposure and treatment.

Act II

Act III

For the third act, Kim turns to Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues in a long poem where jazz, Buddhism, and a sense of creative disappointment intertwine. The chorus holds resonance with the disillusionment of our political moment, with contemporary feelings finding form in the installation. 

Jo Kim's Down the Deep and Rolling River is segmented into four acts, and will run through December 2025.